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Lot escapes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Chapter 19

The two angels, messengers of the LORD, arrived at Sodom in the evening. At the city gate was Lot, and he may have held the position of a judge in the city (verse 9): it was customary at that time to hold court at the entrance to the city, with stone seats for the convenience of the judges. Although this passage does not say so, Lot was a righteous man, who was distressed by the libertine behaviour of the inhabitants of Sodom (see 2 Peter 2:6-8). Perhaps because of his good character he may have been made a judge.

Lot welcomed the two strangers with great respect, bowing down to the ground as was the custom of the time, and offering them the hospitality of his home. At first they were reluctant, perhaps politely, giving opportunity to Lot not to repeat the invitation (if it had been made just because it was customary). But he was sincere, and also knowing the danger of spending the night in the open square, he insisted strongly. So they agreed and entered his house, where he made them a feast.

The scene that follows is nauseating, but it gives us an illustration of the moral abyss that surrounded Lot. When Lot first went there, he was impressed with the rich pastures of the plain; his wealth stifled his perception of the prevailing immorality, and he stayed there with his family coming to the point of approving the marriage of his daughters to men of the place.

The name sodomite has traditionally been used for those who are now called homosexuals, whose practices, condemned by the Bible as evil and sinful (Leviticus 18:22, 29; 20:13, Romans 1:26, 1 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Timothy 1:9-10), are now legally accepted in countries of "Christian" culture. The LORD Jesus warned us this would happen in the days of the Son of man, and that their destruction will come suddenly (Luke 17:26-37): this will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 19:17-21).

The intercession of Lot, offering his own daughters to those wicked men, to prevent them abusing his guests, followed the requirements of hospitality, which imposed on the host an obligation to protect his guests at any cost.

But those men were angry at the intervention of Lot; they pressed hard against him, and came near to break down the door. Only the intervention of the angels contained those perverted men. They pulled Lot into the house, shut the door and struck those men with blindness.

Having obtained proof of the wickedness of the Sodomites, the angels soon identified themselves to Lot as emissaries from the LORD to destroy that place, and urged him to call his family together and flee to the mountains, outside the floodplain. Lot tried to convince his sons-in-law, married to his daughters, to go with him too, but they thought this was ridiculous.

At dawn, the angels took reluctant Lot, his wife and two daughters by the hand and when they got outside the city they told them to escape for their lives and not to look back or stay anywhere in the plain, but to go to the mountains lest they be destroyed. The LORD proved to be merciful to him, overcoming his procrastination.

Lot was forcibly and against his will obliged to leave Sodom, and asked permission to take refuge in a small town, Bela (14:2), later called Zoar (small place), because he feared for his health if he climbed the mountain, further away. Bela was not destroyed because of his presence there (v.21).

The LORD then destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the plain, with a rain of brimstone and fire. In that region deposits of sulphur and asphalt, or bitumen, as seen in 14:10, are still found, being substances that give out highly combustible gases.

Abraham was able to witness the cataclysm from the place where he had begged for mercy from the LORD. We read that it was because of Abraham that God took Lot out of the midst of the ruins - but Abraham probably did not yet know it. We can imagine his surprise and joy to discover later that Lot had been saved!

The report, however, does not stop there, because unfortunately disbelief continued to severely disrupt the family of Lot:

His wife: one of the angels commanded that, when fleeing Sodom, they must not look back - they had to run to their refuge, always looking towards the way forward. But Lot's wife could not resist her curiosity of looking back: probably her heart was in Sodom, where she had lived comfortably as the wife of a man of wealth and good position in society, and she was still incredulous as to what the angel had told them (to her he appeared to be just a man, and a foreigner): she had not wanted to leave Sodom, and was forced to do so. The punishment was immediate: she became a pillar of salt! She was used by the Lord Jesus as an example of those who want to preserve their life in this world, instead of dying to this world to gain eternal life (Luke 17:32-33).

His daughters , having been forced to leave their fiancés in Sodom, fleeing first to the small town of Zoar, and then to the mountain, in a deserted area, they despaired of finding a husband, and fearing to die without leaving any children, resorted to a subterfuge to have children of the only man there: their own father. No doubt the environment and the corrupt practices of Sodom, where they lived, dampened their modesty and natural disgust at this act of incest. Lot was intoxicated by the wine that they gave him on two nights: a warning against the use of alcoholic beverages! From this union each had a son, one named Moab (father), and the other Ben-Ami ( son of my people, that is, father and mother belong to the same family ), from which descended two people: the Moabites who lived east of the Dead Sea (Numbers 21:13), and the Ammonites who lived northeast of the same sea (Deuteronomy 2:37). These nations lived until the end of the occupation of Canaan by the people of Israel, but were cursed by God in the prophecies of Jeremiah (48:16-17) and Amos (1:13, 2:1).

 

R David Jones

1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
2 And he said, "Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way." And they said, "No, but we will spend the night in the open square."
3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
5 And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally."
6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him,
7 and said, "Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly!
8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof."
9 And they said, "Stand back!" Then they said, "This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them." So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door.
10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place!
13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, "Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.
15 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city."
16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
17 So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed."
18 Then Lot said to them, "Please, no, my lords!
19 Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
20 See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live."
21 And he said to him, "See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
:22 Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens.
25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave.
31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth.
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father."
33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father."
35 Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.
38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.

Genesis chapter 19